I demand an explanation! But the question is, who should Seto Kaiba demand an explanation from? His teacher, for pairing him with Anzu Anzu, for acting so complacent about it, or himself for feeling so strongly about Anzu in the first place? [SxA, 1shot]

This is a response to Harlequine (wickeddawn)'s 30 Minute Challenge #2: I
demand an explanation! As usual, it's implied Azureshipping (Seto x Anzu),
and... I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. This is for entertainment only.

It was a complete and total disaster.

It defied every single rule, broke every law, and confounded Seto Kaiba totally,
completely, and utterly.

"I demand an explanation!"

And of course, all he he got in response was a flat, unamused stare.

"You might be CEO of a major corporation, Mister Kaiba, but so long as you're
in my classroom, you'll do what you're told, or you'll pay the consequences
with your grades. Now will you and Miss Mazaki please return to your
seats and get to work on the project?"

Kaiba blinked, having never been told off before. Especially not by a teacher.
Damn this woman! Damn her! Her and her "new" teacher status. She thought she
could boss him around, and pair him with --that was when he bothered to actually look at
Anzu, and he noticed her for what had to be the first time that school year.

She was standing not far from him, hands clenched in loose fists at her side,
her gaze fixed on her feet. A veil of brown hair covered most of her face from
view, but he could just barely make out the hints of her cheeks, stained
a cherry red. She hadn't bothered to say a single thing --not even when Kaiba,
upon hearing the teacher's announcement over who that term's project partners
were, leapt to his feet and started yelling about being stuck with her.

On one hand, she desperately wanted to shout back at Kaiba, and tell him that
she didn't appreciate being stuck with him either, and that she'd rather eat
a banana slug than be paired with him for every single psychology project for
the remainder of the year. On the other hand, Anzu wasn't one to court embarrassment.
Not unnecessarily, anyway.

While Kaiba was one of the smartest people in school, his frequent absences
--always relating to his company, never anything mundane like sickness or the
death of a pet-- had made him a relative unknown when it came to the gifted
and talented branch of classes at Domino High. As a result, it wasn't until
his third and final year that he was given notice that he would be allowed
into one of the elitist and hardest-to-get-into classes-- Advanced Psychology.

And Anzu? Well, she was a quiet genius. She didn't brag about her achievements,
but she certainly made it a point to juggle her school work with her social
life, her secret job, and her love of dancing. Most nights she was up either
studying or working up until two in the morning. It made for a very rough lifestyle,
with very little sleep, but the rewards she reaped outweighed any suffering
she endured.

That, of course, included Seto Kaiba and his big mouth.

He just had to complain about being stuck with her, didn't he? He probably
hadn't even noticed she was in the class until the teacher had announced
that they were to be partnered together. And what a fool he was for that--
if you looked at the class roster, he was Boy #17 on the list, and she was
Girl #17. They were ALWAYS paired together, but this was the first time since
school started that they had a mandatory paired project.

But why was he complaining, anyway? He couldn't possibly claim that she wasn't
smart enough to work with him-- she had, after all, earned her way into the
class, same as him. Hours of rigorous study had finally rewarded her with an
acceptance letter into Domino High's hardest classes, and Anzu took them on
with a smile on her face. Sure, it meant spending less time with the guys,
but they understood. They always had...

That had to be it, then.

Kaiba just complained because he still associated her with being the "cheerleader" of
Yuugi's gang. One of "the mutt's" friends. He didn't even bother coming up
with a creative name for Honda; Kaiba didn't even acknowledge his existence.
But Anzu? No, he proclaimed her existence for the whole classroom --no, the
whole WING of the school building!-- to hear! He had to be stuck with her ?
He demanded an explanation, and he got one.

But Anzu wasn't sure whether to applaud the teacher for shooting Kaiba down
--as Anzu had wanted to on every occasion she had the chance-- or to smack
Kaiba (and risk detention) for his audacity in the first place. In the end,
common sense prevailed, and Anzu didn't do either. She kept her gaze to the
floor, staying completely silent as she walked back to the two chairs where
she and Kaiba typically sat.

Two damn chairs away from him, and he hadn't noticed her until now!

Stupid Kaiba.

Why did that hurt so much?

Maybe because he paid so much attention to Yuugi --even Jounouchi!-- when he
fought them. When he dueled them. Even in their arguments, there was never
a moment when you could doubt that Kaiba was listening. He was attentive, obsessively
so, taking in every detail and memorizing every word. He knew everyone at every
time, and was never caught unawares. He didn't have any weak spots-- he was
Seto Kaiba!

And she was invisible to him. Not a duelist. Not competition at all, even outside
of the dueling arena. She was invisible to him now, and that hurt so much that
the once-embarrassed blush returned, but this time, as the result of anger,
simmering just below the placid surface of Anzu's face. She didn't want to
land in detention, let alone get stuck with more work to do, not when
she had work tonight...

"We might as well get started." And she sat down in her chair, opening her textbook
to the appropriate page, and starting to formulate an outline for their project.
She worked quickly and quietly, not noticing until Kaiba's rather large hand
covered her textbook that he hadn't been doing the same.

She glanced up only to find his eyes staring right at her --and the embarrassed
blush returned. All this time, all these years, and he'd barely favored her
with more than a three-second glance. And the few times he had looked at her,
he'd usually been filled with utter contempt. He hated her, didn't
he? Wasn't that why he so callously demanded an explanation, just because
he was paired with her for a silly class project?

Okay, so it wasn't silly-- it was half of their final grade, at least, and
it meant the world to Anzu, who was hoping to have enough good grades to get
her into Tokyo University on a scholarship. But Kaiba was probably a shoo-in
for places like that. Knowing him, he'd probably been accepted to prestigious
universities around the world, and didn't care about projects, because he could
always do them on his own, at home, in ten minutes or less...

He was Seto Kaiba, after all. Genius, champion... loner extraordinaire. He
didn't need anyone, least of all her .

Stupid, stupid Kaiba.

"You aren't bothered by it at all?"

She dropped her gaze back to her notes, continuing to plan despite Kaiba's
hand still covering the textbook.

"Bothered by what?"

Had she looked up at him at that moment, she would have seen an expression
of surprise cross his otherwise blank face. Wasn't it obvious?

How come she hadn't exploded in self-righteous anger, too? He'd actually been
expecting it. If she had, he probably wouldn't have embarrassed himself so
badly. The two of them could have argued and argued until the teacher was finally
won over, and then...

But she hadn't argued. She'd just walked up to the teacher's desk quietly,
head hung low and voice mute. She'd accepted everything the teacher said with
a silent nod, and walked back to her desk and gotten to work like there was
no problem at all. But there was a problem, a most grievous problem.

How could she possibly stand working with him? Didn't she hate him?

She spent so much time in the past two years lecturing him, railing on him
for his self-imposed exile, for his lack of a social life, his attitude toward
others-- she even had the nerve to spend time with Mokuba, and then lecture
Kaiba about not spending enough time with his younger sibling! She was... frustrating.
Annoyingly so.

Or she had been, at any rate.

This whole year, she'd been nothing but mild-mannered compared to the girl
Kaiba had become familiar with over the course of the past two years. Duelist
Kingdom, the Virtual World... Battle City. Was this the same Anzu Mazaki that
had boldly confronted him after his stunt at Duelist Castle, and asked him
if he even knew what the value of life was? Was this the selfsame girl who
had pushed her way out from between her friends, and told him that he was no
different than the machines and computers he worked with?

Where had that fiery Anzu gone?

He sort of missed her, in an odd sort of way, but he certainly wasn't about
to tell her that. No, instead, he'd demanded an explanation from the teacher,
hoping --with the tiniest degree-- that such a provocation would spur the Anzu
he knew into returning. In all honesty, he missed verbally sparring with her...

She was the only one left, anyway. The only one who would argue with him with
every ounce of her being and then smile at him in the hallway a few moments
later.

Maybe the teacher wasn't the one he should have demanded the explanation from.

..END..

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